Penn Twp. supervisors discuss mushroom company, new radio station

Skip McGrew, the chairman of the Penn
Township Planning Commission, informed the Board of Supervisors at
its Aug. 6 meeting about an application filed by Qihe Food
Corporation.

McGrew described the application they
had reviewed. “Originally, it came to us as a lot line change, then
it morphed into a subdivision, and now it is a full-blown application
for development,” he said.

Qihe Food Corporation intends to grow
shitake mushrooms, which according to McGrew, is quite different than
growing other varieties of mushrooms. “There are a number of issues
and we asked a lot of questions,” McGrew said. “We learned a lot,
but there are still many unanswered questions.” McGrew said that
the mushrooms are grown on on something manufactured in China that
“looks like a log, but is not hardwood. They are a composite of
some sort," McGrew said. "This still remains a bit
unclear.”

The supervisors said they plan to act
on the application at their next meeting.

In other business, Dansko
representative Joe Riper presented the company's request for a zoning
amendment. He said Dansko had a prospective lessee for a portion of
their original building on Federal Drive, but the building was in the
C2 district, which only allows non-industrial uses.

In their design and manufacturing of
surgical equipment for cancer treatment, the interested party, Anholt
Technologies, is considered light manufacturing. They currently have
a building in New Garden, but are outgrowing it.

Riper said that while Anholt will
operate on three shifts, only 20 people work on the day shift, and
considerably fewer on the other two shifts. He added that there would
be minimal truck traffic and no external impact, such as heat or
fumes.

“I am here tonight to introduce the
concept,” Riper told the supervisors. “Then I would meet with the
Planning Commission and make a more formal presentation.”

The board agreed that Riper should meet
with the Planning Commission later in the month and said they would
like to visit the current Anholt Technologies location to learn more
about their operation.

“We are moving forward with this, and
on June 11, we got permission from the FCC to do a 30-day test,”
Freese said. “The signal more than covered the Avon Grove area.”

Freese hopes to have the station up and
running by the end of the year. “We want to get people accustomed
to listening to it now for local information. Then, when there is an
emergency, they will know to tune in for directions,” he explained.
He noted that the station could broadcast information on road
closures or events in the various townships.

AGREM has already been awarded $9,995
by Chester County Emergency Services towards the project, which is
estimated at $40,000. Freese is visiting each of the five townships
and one borough in the Avon Grove region to request that they
contribute $1 per capita to help fund the endeavor.

“We think it speaks to everybody,”
replied Curtis Mason, chairman of the Board of Supervisors.

Supervisors Victor Mantegna and Ken
Bryson both agreed with Mason. Karen Versuk, Penn’s public
relations manager, said, “Once it kicks off, we will publicize it
in a big way. We’ll put it on our website and on our big sign on
Baltimore Pike.”

Versuk also reported on a number of
projects in the township. She is optimistic about a generator grant
for which they recently applied. This would allow the township to
run traffic signals during power outages.

She said they held their first public
meeting regarding the public mobility study and that it was well
attended and well received. She hopes to get more input via
questionnaires that are being distributed and will be available at
the upcoming picnic and wellness fair on Sept. 27.

“We are on target as far as raising
money for the picnic,” she said, adding that McCormick Taylor just
signed on as the first platinum sponsor, and that Dansko remains a
loyal gold sponsor.

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